


Anticipating the Day

by firewolfsg



Series: Journey of Light (光) [9]
Category: Saiunkoku Monogatari
Genre: Child Abuse, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-28
Updated: 2010-03-28
Packaged: 2017-10-08 09:22:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/75172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firewolfsg/pseuds/firewolfsg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written out of sequence for Saiunkoku Fic LJ's September 2008 Fic Battle Prompt 24) Kouyuu. On the eve of his national examination</p>
            </blockquote>





	Anticipating the Day

Tomorrow would be the moment of truth for him and all the other candidates in the student dormitories. Kouyuu was too excited to sleep, but he knew he needed to rest in order to perform well. Shuuei had certainly taken that advice and was now breathing quite deeply in his ear.

In the early days when he'd first arrived to stay in the dormitories surrounded by strangers, Kouyuu had been wracked by fears and nightmares to be so far away from Reishin sama and Yuri Hime. Fortunately, he still remembered his childhood tricks of coping and managed not to disturb his dorm mates. Shuuei, however, was more observant than he'd earlier credited him with. And Kouyuu was to wake from his first restful sleep in weeks to find the other boy comfortably wrapped around him.

Shuuei had never questioned Kouyuu about his nightmares, and easily brushed away Kouyuu's shy protests. And unaccountably, Kouyuu did feel safe with the older boy. However, he still wasn't quite sure why they came to stay gravitate to this position where his 'new best friend' would wrap him in his arms at night to sleep when he'd already gotten over the nightmares these last few weeks.

Kouyuu would admit that he really didn't understand Ran Shuuei. He knew from gossip among the other candidates that the boy was under a tremendous amount of pressure from his clan. With three exceptionally talented older brothers and a younger brother who had been proclaimed the clan genius, Ran Ryuuren, Shuuei was under incredible pressure to do well.

This was very much unlike Kouyuu who would reluctantly admit that this was one of the very few times he was glad Reishin sama didn't give him the Kou name. Under a common name of 'Li', he'd been largely ignored as a young scholar sent by a merchant class family to sit the imperial exams. Any pressure Kouyuu felt for doing well, he had placed upon himself.

Reishin sama and Yuri Hime hadn't wanted him to take the exams so early. They hastily assured him it wasn't because they thought he couldn't handle the exams, but because they thought him too young to stay away from home without them. Kouyuu, however, was impatient to take the exams so that he could start paying Reishin sama back for rescuing him from slavery. He wanted to proudly serve the man.

It had saddened Kouyuu to realise his friend had little more goals regarding the exams than fulfilling clan expectations. And even then, the moment he had met Kouyuu, Shuuei had known he wasn't going to graduate as Jorgen. Yet the older boy hadn't resented him. In fact, Shuuei had immediately claimed Kouyuu as a studying partner and companion and helped Kouyuu keep his low profile so as not to draw the attentions of the more arrogant candidates. To be fair, Kouyuu quite enjoyed studying with Shuuei. He had never had a study companion before and the joy of sharing knowledge and occasionally tutoring his slightly weaker friend helped Kouyuu to forget his discomfort over staying with strangers and away from home.

Only the instructors recognized the quiet talent of the two boys, and they kindly let them drift through their lessons unremarked and far from the loud attentions of the boastful bullies. Shuuei had the confidence to be quite excited about the upset the two of them were going to cause when the results were finally revealed.

"Kouyuu, stop thinking about tomorrow and go to sleep." Shuuei startled him with the whisper in his ear.

"I thought you were sleeping?"

"You think too loud." Kouyuu could practically hear the smile in his words. "It's a big day tomorrow, go-- to-- sleep..."

Kouyuu smiled as he felt the older boy relaxing into slumber again. Yes, it was a big day. And if he could just fall asleep too, he'd greet-- it all-- the-- faste--*

~owari~

Thanks for reading. Cheers, firewolf


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